Berkeley City Council Special Meeting – June 14, 2024: Ballot Measures and Initiative Reports
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Berkeley City Council Special Meeting – June 14, 2024
This special meeting, held at 2:00 PM in the School District Board Room, focused on two primary agenda items: (1) a referral to the City Manager to prepare impartial reports on two voter-initiated ordinances (Control of Infectious Aerosols in City Buildings and Large Buildings Fossil Fuel Emissions Tax), and (2) review of community survey results and direction on potential November 2024 ballot measures, including the Parks Tax, Measure P (real property transfer tax), Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Product Distribution Tax, and a potential new arts funding measure. Council also discussed the feasibility of an additional survey on arts revenue options.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1 – Elections Code Section 9212 Reports on Initiative Ordinances: Mayor Arreguin referred two proposed initiative ordinances to the City Manager for reports on fiscal impact, staffing, economic effects, and feasibility. The ordinances are "Control of Infectious Aerosols in City Buildings" and "Large Buildings Fossil Fuel Emissions Tax." Council directed staff to include a cost-benefit analysis (not just cost impact) and to consider social cost of carbon, safety risks, and current gas usage trends. The motion passed unanimously (7-0, with Councilmember Taplin absent).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Chuck Soper (personal capacity, long COVID survivor) expressed strong support for the infectious aerosols ordinance, citing preventable COVID spread and the low cost of improved filtration. He urged council to consider health and economic benefits.
- Brianna McGuire (Chair of Environment and Climate Commission, speaking personally) requested the fossil fuel tax report include the social cost of carbon, financial benefits of electrification, and analysis of current natural gas usage trends in large buildings. She noted gas consumption in those buildings increased by over 230,000 therms from 2020 to 2023 despite existing regulations.
- Moni Law (City employee, speaking personally) supported both initiative ordinances, emphasizing worker safety, her father's dementia, and her sister's cancer. She also spoke in favor of the infectious aerosols measure via email.
- David Mayeri (Berkeley Music Group/UC Theater) supported the proposed arts tax, stressing the economic multiplier effect of performing arts ($14–$16 per ticket sold for local businesses) and the urgent need for rescue funding post-pandemic.
- Kathleen Crandall (Berkeley Symphony board) urged council to advance the arts tax, noting that arts organizations are still struggling to recover from COVID and need sustained support.
- Igor Tregub (incoming District 4 councilmember) spoke in support of the arts tax, emphasizing the role of arts as a form of resistance and the need for Berkeley to remain a vibrant cultural destination.
- Kieran Chinoy (Bridge Association of Realtors) urged caution on increasing the transfer tax (Measure P), citing potential negative impacts on home sales, property values, and rent. He recommended removing the sunset date without a rate increase, and questioned whether multiple tax measures could overwhelm voters.
- Ari Lipske (Berkeley Repertory Theater) strongly supported an arts ballot measure, noting that the pandemic is not over for performing arts and that an emergency measure is needed to prevent closures.
Discussion Items
- Community Survey Results and Direction on Potential November 2024 Ballot Measures: David Merman (Lake Research Partners) presented results from a survey of 500 likely Berkeley voters (May 30–June 4, margin of error ±4%). Key findings:
- Top priorities: Affordable housing (56%) and street/sidewalk repairs (41%).
- Direction of city: 47% said “right direction,” consistent with prior years; 54% rated city services good/excellent.
- Parks Tax (20% increase): 68% initial yes (just above two-thirds threshold); after hearing pro/con arguments, fell to 62%. The 28% increase received 61% initial yes, dropping to 60% after arguments. Council leaned toward the 20% option.
- Measure P (transfer tax): A tiered increase (2.5% for properties ≥$1.5M, 3% for ≥$3M, 3.5% for ≥$10M, no sunset) received 62% yes (well above 50% threshold). A simple extension with no increase received 59% yes. Support for the tiered version remained at 61% after arguments. Council expressed interest in maintaining the existing annual reset formula (top one-third of transactions) and potentially adjusting the floor.
- Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax: No specific polling; council agreed to remove the 2027 sunset date.
- Arts Tax (concept): 69% said they would support a measure to fund performing arts, arts education, grants, festivals, and capital projects. No specific revenue vehicle was tested. Council discussed options: a parcel tax (similar to parks), a sales tax increase (max 0.75%, raising ~$2M), or a transient occupancy tax increase (2% raising ~$833K). Councilmember Hahn proposed a tiered parcel tax with a surge in early years, but no specific dollar amount was set.
- Council discussion: Several members raised concerns about ballot crowding (five potential parcel tax measures), voter fatigue, and affordability for homeowners. Councilmember Kesarwani suggested a low initial revenue target (~$2M) and preferred the transient occupancy tax as less regressive. Councilmember Humbert favored a higher threshold for Measure P (e.g., $1.8M) to avoid taxing median home sales. Vice Mayor Wengraf urged caution on multiple taxes, noting rising costs for homeowners (insurance, PG&E, property taxes). Councilmember Lunaparra supported a progressive tiered approach. Councilmember Hahn argued that the voters should decide on each measure rather than council pre-selecting.
Key Outcomes
- Motion (Mayor Arreguin, seconded by Councilmember Hahn): Directed staff to prepare ballot measure language for the July 30, 2024 council meeting, as follows:
- Parks Tax: Amend the existing tax to result in a 20% increase.
- Measure P: Amend the existing tax to remove the January 1, 2029 expiration date and add a tiered increase: 2.5% for properties ≥$1.5M, 3% for ≥$3M, 3.5% for ≥$10M (the same tiers tested in the survey). The existing annual reset formula (top one-third of transactions) will be retained.
- Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax: Remove the current 10-year expiration date (January 1, 2027).
- Arts Tax: Authorize the Mayor, in consultation with staff and the polling firm, to conduct an additional survey testing three revenue options: a transient occupancy tax increase (2%), a sales tax increase (max 0.75%), and a parcel tax (e.g., four cents per square foot). Survey results and a proposed framework will be brought back to council for further direction. The cost of the survey (up to ~$30,000) is to be identified from existing funds.
- Vote: The motion passed 7–0–1 (Councilmember Taplin absent).
- Next Steps: Staff will return with draft ballot language and the arts survey proposal at a special meeting on July 30, 2024.
Meeting Transcript
So honestly, just to say it if if the it's the city manager's report comes back and says, well, there's this cost and this cost and so forth. Uh and by the way, this um was funded in tens of millions of dollars by um uh by ARPA. I mean, that money was for this exact purpose. Whether it's been used for this purpose, I don't know, but that's what it was for. Um that's what's intended for, and we have information that, for example, there are filtering machines, air filtering machines uh in city buildings that aren't functioning because of a lack of a filter. Like not the not the whole box, the little filter for years. Um this is if this is true, this is malpractice and it can have a deadly result. Um please um let's make this happen. Um, and and and and ask for a fulsome report that really gets to both potential costs and avoided costs, personal costs, avoiding lack of no uh uh uh attendance at work, um, and uh uh the social costs and the and the um public health costs, all of it. Um and then we'll talk more about the uh thank you the climate measure rate. Thank you. Okay, uh, are there any other members of the public here in person who'd like to address item one on the consent calendar? Uh okay, we'll go to speakers on Zoom. Chuck Soper followed by Moni Law. Hello. Uh my name is Chuck Soper. I'm speaking in support of the control of infectious aerosols in city buildings ordinance. I'd like to play two short recordings from an article titled Post Pandemic and Increasing Focus on Indoor Air Quality. So Joe Allen of Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health believes the rapid spread of COVID in early 2020 was preventable. Think about the public health gains we've made over the past hundred years. We made improvements to water quality, outdoor air pollution, or food safety. We've made improvements to sanitation, absolute basics of public health. Where has indoor air been in that conversation? It's totally forgotten about. And the pandemic showed what a glaring mistake that was. What do you think was lost because of that lag and understanding of how this was spread? Tens of thousands of lives in the US, many more globally. Not exaggeration. And the next very short recording is about the misconception that old buildings cannot be healthy buildings. Some of these fixes don't take much. Improving the level of filtration. That's easy, it's cheap, protects against COVID-19 influenza, also protects against wildfire smoke and outdoor air pollution, protects against allergens, simple, absolute basic things that can do. For the past two years, I've been recovering from long COVID. For me, the ordinance is personal. I care about the health and well-being of my coworkers as well as the community. I urge the count council to support this ordinance. I believe it will pay for itself. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go next to Moni Law, followed by Brianna McGuire. And Moni, you should be able to speak now. I think thank you, Mayor and Council. I hope you can hear me. I'm on my personal time, speaking in my personal capacity on vacation right now on a bus. Um, I do believe this urgency of this matter cannot be understated or overstated, actually overstated in that we all know that the climate is warming beyond the time that they'd expect. Moni, we lost you. Uh Ms. Law, we lost your connection. Okay, we'll come back to you. We'll go next to Brianna and hopefully we'll be able to connect with you.
openpublica.com